What to do about The Human in Organization Studies? Thinkingsayingdoing with the Anthropocene, pandemics, and thereafters

Matter and Method: The Quest for a New‐Materialist Methodology in Management Studies

“…Following Deleuze and Guattari (1987, 1994), we postulated a research approach that resists consolidated and stratified methodological clichés and the ‘illusion of the human in control’ (Calás et al. , 2023, p.177), leaving space for generative chaos (Benozzo, 2021). We stress the need to imagine, think and put into practice a creative management research process that exceeds repetitions of methods and procedures to liberate innovative practices that recognize humans’ and matter's connection and shared agency.…”

“…writing, analysing and theorizing of qualitative research (Plakoyiannaki and Budhwar, 2021). This effort is nurtured in recent contributions that explore the limitations of human-centred approaches (Calás and Smircich, 2023). The first limitation is related to the pitfalls of the so-called conventional humanistic qualitative research (St. Pierre, 1997) that has fallen into a predictable and disciplined pattern which relies on the conventions proliferated in positivist research.…”

“…While scholars (e.g. Jackson and Mazzei, 2022; have denounced that qualitative research has failed in distancing itself from the positivist conventions it sought to challenge, important contributions to crafting alternative methodologies have been made by researchers inspired by poststructuralism, postmodernism, actornetwork theory and, more recently, new materialism and posthumanism (Calás and Smircich, 2023). The second limitation that pertains to the human-centred perspective inherent in qualitative research is that it revolves around language and interpretation, emphasizing individuals' sense-making in various organizational and work contexts.…”

“…Several scholars in the field of management (e.g. Bryant and Wolfram Cox, 2014;Calás and Smircich, 2023;Cooren, 2020;Fotaki, Metcalfe and Harding, 2014;Harding, Gilmore and Ford, 2022;Hultin and Introna, 2019) are increasingly engaging with new materialism and posthumanism to contribute to the rethinking of the relationship between human beings, work and organizational objects and the environment (Parmiggiani and Mikalsen, 2013). This impetus is due to the sway of Artificial Intelligence (AI), technological advancement and ecological threats on management and organizations, and the subsequent calls for morethan-human approaches to research (Ergene and Calás, 2023).…”